1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to a transport technique for transporting, in an image forming apparatus, a recording medium which has a storage unit capable of performing data communication with a predetermined communication section.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, for example, a technique, which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-030776, is known as a transport technique for transporting, in an image forming apparatus, a recording medium which has a storage unit capable of performing data communication with a predetermined communication section. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-030776, a transport method is described, wherein a sheet equipped with an RFID tag is prevented from passing through an image forming section including a fixing unit in relation to a technique in which an RFID tag reader/writer (communication section) is provided in a printer (image forming apparatus) and information is written into the RFID tag (storage unit) of the sheet (recording medium). In relation thereto, a technique is disclosed, wherein the printer is provided with an exclusively usable apparatus which has a transport passage installed with the reader/writer and the fed printing paper is discharged via a transport passage without passing through the image forming section if it is judged by the reader/writer that the fed printing paper is the sheet equipped with the RFID tag.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-030776, it is possible to preferably avoid the breakage of the IC tag which would be otherwise broken by the passage of the sheet equipped with the RFID tag through the fixing unit. However, if the exclusively usable transport passage, which does not pass through the image forming section, is provided in order to protect the IC tag as in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-030776, it is feared that the apparatus may be large-sized.